Jon Stewart takes aim at Republicans’ gun crime narrative: ‘Feelings don’t care about your facts’

Jon Stewart used his Monday night slot on The Daily Show to take aim at conservative claims that gun crime is on the rise in American cities — when FBI statistics prove the exact opposite.

Responding to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump reportedly saying last week that Milwaukee was “horrible” a month before the GOP convention is set to take place there, Stewart launched into a savage broadside against cable news fear-mongering. Republicans then later tried to spin and say Trump was talking about the crime in Milwaukee.

Stewart began: “It’s one of the right’s favorite talking points – not just for Milwaukee, but for all Democratic-run cities – that those cities are crime-infested s***holes, where life is miserable and everyone hates everybody. But people who live in these cities know that this rhetoric is only kind of true…”

The comedian then presented a graphic compiling the FBI’s data and showing that violent crime was actually down 15.2 percent nationally in the first quarter of 2024, while murders were down 26.4 percent, rapes 25.7 percent, aggravated assaults 12.5 percent, robberies 17.8 percent and property crime 15.1 percent.

Despite this good news, right-wing media insists that cities do not “seem” or “feel” safe to their residents, the host noted, pivoting to clips of Fox hosts Jesse Watters, Martha MacCallum, Maria Bartiromo and Dana Perino echoing that claim.

“As the right always famously says, ‘Feelings don’t care about your facts.’ ‘F** Your Facts’, isn’t that the slogan on the right?” Stewart joked, showing off a spoof bumper sticker to that effect.

He went on to blame the hysterical graphics used by broadcasters for adversely influencing public sentiment and cutting to clips of Fox anchors